Novartis case: Govt seeks time to submit arguments

Mumbai: Additional time has been sought by the Government to submit its arguments to the Madras High Court on the appointment of Mr Chandrasekaran as a technical member on the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB).

The next hearing is on October 8.

The IPAB was to look into the rejection of Swiss drug-maker Novartis’ application for its cancer drug Glivec by the Patent Controller. And Novartis had objected to the appointment of Mr Chandrasekaran on the IPAB, as he was the head of the Patent Controller’s office when it had rejected Novartis’ application in January 2006.

The Centre will have to communicate its stand on the appointment of the technical member to the Court, else it will be left to the Court to decide, said a lawyer familiar with the development.

Explaining why Novartis had opposed the appointment of the former Patent Controller General as a technical member on the IPAB, the company said: “We expect the opportunity to explain our case clearly to an objective board. Because the current technical member of the appellate board was responsible for the original rejection of the Glivec patent, and was a party in the patent appeal in the High Court, we believe he cannot act as an impartial member of the Appellate Board,” a company statement said.

Another Glivec case

Only last month, the Madras High Court had dismissed another case regarding Novartis’ Glivec. The drug major had contested, in a separate case, certain constitutional parameters that had contributed to the rejection of Novartis’ patent application by the Patent Controller.